Robert Hass won the 2007 National Book Award for poetry after all. His book “Time and Materials: Poems 1997-2005″ earned him the top award after being a finalist twice before. With the award, Hass will receive $10,000 and a bronze statue—an upgrade from the finalist’s kudos of $1,000 and bronze medal. That’s sweet.The National Book Foundation’s page describes the collected poems as

grounded in the beauty and energy of the physical world, and in the bafflement of the present moment in American culture.

We’ve already bought “Sun Under Wood,” but now we have even more reason to pick up his newest masterpiece at his Cody’s book reading next week. If you’re a stalker (even off Facebook), you can gawk at Hass on Nov. 19 at 7 p.m. at Cody’s Books on Fourth Street.

Do you think if we suck up to him now he’ll remember us next semester when we sit front and center in his American poetry class?